By the side of the
graves of Father Rutilio Grande and his “martyr” companions, Manuel Solorzano
and Nelson Lemus, buried beneath the floor of the San Jose Church in El
Paisnal, San Salvador Archbishop Jose Luis Escobar Alas presented a monumental
new pastoral letter on the persecution of the Salvadoran Church and the martyrs
it produced. [Spanish text.]

«Ustedes También Darán Testimonio, Porque Han
Estado Conmigo Desde el Principio» (“You will also testify, because you
have been with me since the beginning”—C.f.,
Jn. 15:27), Archbishop Escobar’s second pastoral letter, coincides with the
40th anniversary of the martyrdom of Fr. Rutilio Grande, a fact that does not
go unnoticed in the archbishop’s text. The Catholic hierarch calls it “grave” that “forty years after the martyrdom of Fr. Rutilio Grande García S.J ., I wish
to recognize—as I must out of justice, truth and charity—that we have crossed
the threshold of the third millennium in the Salvadoran Archdiocese without
having pronounced a word of recognition of all the men and women who were
victims of persecution, torture, repression; and in their final consequences, martyrs’ deaths, following Christ and the incarnation of the Gospel in the
country.” [«Ustedes También», 3.]

The prelate
attributes this oversight to possible “attempts
to return to a certain type of ecclesiology and spirituality contrary to the
renewal of the Second Vatican Council” and offers his apology: “I regret that this act of justice and
charity toward our martyrs had not been carried out years earlier.” [Ibid.] Later, Archbishop Escobar also
apologizes for leaving out the laity in this letter dedicated to the martyrs
who died having received some sacred order, including the priesthood and consecrated
life. “I confess that we, the pastors of
our ecclesiastical Province, have not inquired in depth about these types of
martyrs,” writes Escobar. “I
apologize for our inaction.” [Op.
Cit., 147.] He also promises a future rectification. [Id.]

Specifically,
the Letter, over 200 pgs. in length, contains testimonies for twenty-four
particular martyrs of the Salvadoran Church, including 17 priests, 4 religious
women, 2 bishops and one seminarian:

1. Fr. Rutilio
Grande Garcia, Jesuit Priest;

2. Fr. Nicolas
Antonio Rodríguez Aguilar, diocesan priest;

3. Fr. Alfonso
Navarro, diocesan priest;

4. Fr. Rafael
Ernesto Barrera Motto, diocesan priest;

5. Fr. Octavio
Ortiz, diocesan priest;

6. Fr. Rafael
Palacios, diocesan priest;

7. Fr. Alirio
Napoleon Macias, diocesan priest;

8. Blessed Archbishop
Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez;

9. Fr. Cosme Spessotto, Franciscan Priest;

10. Jose Ohtmaro
Cáceres, diocesan seminarian;

11. Fr. Manuel
Antonio Reyes, oratorian priest;

12. Fr. Ernesto
Abrego, oratorian priest;

13. Fr. Marcial
Serrano, diocesan priest;

14. Sr. Dorothy
Lu Kazel O.S.U;

15. Jean Donovan;

16. Sr. Ita Catherine Ford M.M .;

17. Sr. Maura
Elizabeth Clarke M.M .;

18. Fr. Ignacio
Ellacuria, Jesuit Priest;

19. Fr. Ignacio
Martin Baro, Jesuit Priest;

20. Fr. Segundo Montes
Mozo, Jesuit Priest;

21. Fr. Amando Lopez
Quintana, Jesuit Priest;

22. Fr. Juan Ramon
Moreno Pardo, Jesuit Priest;

23. Fr. Joaquín
Lopez y Lopez, Jesuit Priest; and

24. Bishop Roberto Joaquin Ramos Umana.

For each of
them, «Ustedes También» presents
biographical data, a summary of the ecclesial mission of each individual, and
the circumstances of their martyrdom. If this had been the only contribution of
the letter, «Ustedes También» would
already be of much value. Compared, for example, with an Americas Watch report
that I have used as a reference for the Salvadoran martyrology, the archbishop’s
letter contains all of the cases cataloged by Americas Watch, and others more.
In addition to the Salvadoran martyrs, the Archbishop’s letter also pays homage
to those of neighboring countries, including Bishop Gerardi and Stanley Rother
in Guatemala. [«Ustedes También»,
184-189.]

For all the
martyrs as a group, Archbishop Escobar affirms once and for all that “they were martyrs, not because they adhered
to an ideology, but because they tried to illuminate with faith a reality of
pain, suffering, poverty, violence, Injustice, oppression, torture,
marginalization and death.” [Ibid.,
176.] In the second part of the letter, Archbishop Escobar weaves an entire
theology of martyrdom, from the pages of the Old and New Testaments, as well as
from the magisterium of the Church. Even more, Escobar also begins to gather an
ecclesiology of martyrdom. In some of his most poetic passages, he cites the
ancient Christian literature of the Shepherd
of Hermas to describe the building of the Church as the construction of a
tower with stones so perfectly carved (representing the martyrs) that “the tower appeared as a single block.” [Op. Cit., 11]

Finally, the Archbishop
rails against the impunity that prevails in the country, demanding justice for
his martyrs. [Id., 156-157.]

In the ninth
year of his archbishopric, Archbishop Escobar has clearly found his voice, and it
has a prophetic tenor. His first pastoral letter, last year, seemed “Romeroesque”
to us for its attention to urgent social
issues from the point of view of the Gospel. In recent days, the archbishop has
led a campaign against metal mining, collecting signatures, leading a march to
the legislature, and even presenting legislation to abolish the practice. «Ustedes También» is perhaps his most
radical move: in the true Romeroesque sense, Archbishop Escobar is radical from
his orthodoxy.He co-opts new
developments in the life of the Church and appropriates them to the traditional
and institutional fabric of its history.